Patch 4.2 Rage of the Firelands Official Trailer

Blizzard has just unveiled the official trailer for Patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands! Enjoy!

Blizzard Entertainment

Across the breadth of Azeroth, the Horde and the Alliance have dealt crushing blows to Deathwing's elemental minions and fanatic Twilight's Hammer cultists. Through it all, the Earthen Ring has never wavered from its tireless charge, holding Azeroth itself together amid the tidal fury and errant magical energies that churn at the Maelstrom. Yet as the elements continue their chaotic upheaval, it seems that the noble shamanic order might finally be on the verge of breaking beneath the great weight that rests on its shoulders. Even Thrall, for all of his wisdom and skill, has grown aggravated by his failure to effectively communicate with Azeroth's elements. Recently, his calls were acknowledged, but the malevolent entity that responded has only intensified Thrall's fears and doubts....

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch 4.2 is just on the horizon. Building off of our preview of the Rage of the Firelands content introduced in this patch, we’re pleased to present you with the official patch trailer!

Clarifications on Death Knight Tanking Dev Impressions

Ultimately, my question is; when maintaining the affirmations made by the Devs regarding the Death Knight tank style, where are Death Knights compensated for the extra skill and risk associated with their class' tank spec?

DKs have a lot of control over their survivability. While the other tank classes spend a lot of button clicks on generating threat, DKs can regularly hit Death Strike, which heals them. This puts a very powerful tool in the hands of the player. Played well, you can mitigate a lot of incoming damage and even choose when it is important to mitigate that damage. But you also have the possibility of playing poorly. It probably isn’t the kind of play style that is going to appeal to everyone.

You can look at the recent discussion about the paladin Holy Shield as a microcosm of this debate. Some players wanted more control over their survivability, and the new Holy Shield provides that. But it is more work to control an active button and there is a larger penalty for doing it badly. Death Strike is like Holy Shield on steroids in this regard. There are good and bad times to use Holy Shield. There are definitely good and bad times to use Death Strike. We see some DKs attempting to hit Death Strike as much as they possibly can, and then getting frustrated when they can’t squeeze more Death Strikes into the rotation. What they are perhaps missing is that the timing of when they Death Strike is very important. Used optimally, it’s a powerful reactive tool.

One thing we have discussed is giving players more control over whether they make this decision (trading higher risk for higher return) or not. In many driving games for example you have the choice of an automatic or manual transmission. Many players choose the automatic, suspecting that they are probably not going to be as fast as a player who is awesome at managing their clutch, but it means they never have to mess with the clutch and can still win plenty of races. On the other hand, imagine that the player who plays the manual perfectly is performing at 100% and the player who performs the manual poorly is performing at 25%. Choosing an automatic transmission for 75% performance may be perfectly acceptable. You give up a little theoretical performance in return for having less going on. Tanking can often have a lot going on. Maybe there is a talent choice that lets DKs have a more powerful Death Strike in return for weaker passive mitigation. Some players would take that talent, and some might only take it for some encounters.

Related, we understand that some DKs don’t like having to make the decision about whether to Death Strike or whether to apply tanking debuffs. That’s really the tension that’s supposed to be at the heart of any resource system -- I have a limited allotment of X, so at this moment do I want to use X on this one ability or on a separate ability? Again, a possible solution is to put the choice of which play style to use in the hands of the player. We could offer a talent or glyph (or something) that lowers the cooldown of Outbreak for instance, without turning Blood DKs into a spec that can play optimally by pushing nothing but Death Strike. It’s something we’ll consider.

(Assuming Blood is the manual transmission, and the other three classes are automatic)

Amazing DKs aren't 25% better than Amazing Paladins/Warriors/Druids, so what is the point of a system that is incredibly punishing and only slightly rewarding?

The 25%, 75% and 100% percentiles weren’t meant to be taken literally. If a DK feels like he or she has to work much harder than other tanks to achieve about the same amount of survivability, then that feels bad (and to be fair, we had this exact problem with paladin tanks being too easy to play well in the previous expansion). On the other hand, if a DK played well completely trumps all other tanks, then the very best guilds for whom the skill cap isn’t an issue, will just use DK tanks. We see a pretty good spread of DK tanks among both great raiding guilds and all raiding guilds for that matter, so we don’t think the numbers are so far off that groups are either flocking to or avoiding DK tanks.

On Making Improvements to Questing Process

It's just that if we make quests too challenging or too complicated, especially during the leveling process, we run the risk of creating situations where players might become frustrated and feel like they're being forced into a style of gameplay that isn't exactly their cup of PvE.

I'm reading that as you want quests to be interesting but easy and fast to get people to endgame.

Yes and no. When designing quests, it's important for us to keep in mind all the different kinds of players that'll play through them and what their interests might be. For example, some World of Warcraft players just want to get to max level as quickly as they can. That's a totally valid style of play, so we try to make sure that quests don't arbitrarily complicate or impede the leveling process.

That's just one thing we consider, though. We know that there are a lot of players who absolutely love questing -- quest chains, daily quests, low level quests, all of it. (Loremasters, represent! \\o/) And we absolutely want to appeal to that group of players, too. With respect to the OP's suggestions, our concern is that, if we implement quests that are too challenging or too similar to dungeon content, then we risk forcing players into roles and types of gameplay that they may not appreciate. Not everyone likes running dungeons or feeling pressured by having to learn encounter mechanics, so overloading quest content with those kind of scenarios may not be the best course of action.

Could we do more to vary up the kinds of quests you play through, though? Sure. We feel that we can still provide a streamlined, straightforward questing experience without always relying on the simple "collect this," "kill that," "okay, now kill that again, and then be a good sport and collect a variety of gross things from their corpses" objectives that everyone has come to love. Those kinds of quests certainly have their place and will likely remain a staple in World of Warcraft, but we're trying some new things with the 4.2 daily areas that we hope players will enjoy, and want to continue that trend with future content, as well.

Just a few new Blizzard posts today, during this quiet calm before the inevitable storm that is Patch 4.2! Today Blizzard has posted a more detailed explanation of the Valor Points conversion in 4.2 (as Bashiok had stated they would) which should answer any questions and clear up any confusion players may have had.

In addition, Blizzard poster Kaivax clarifies the proc on with some detailed information which should make many casters happy!

Valor Point Conversion in Patch 4.2

Blizzard Entertainment

World of Warcraft update 4.2, Rage of the Firelands, will introduce the first new raid tier in Cataclysm, and with that it will also introduce the first conversion from Valor Points to Justice Points. For anyone running Heroics and raids, this is important information to ensure you spend your points wisely before release of the patch.

With the release of patch 4.2 all Valor Points will be converted down to Justice Points up to the 4000 point cap, with any points over the cap being converted to gold at a rate of 47 silver per point. In addition, all previous Tier 11 Valor items will now be purchasable with Justice from the Justice Point vendors, and new Tier 12 Valor items will be available from the Valor vendors.

For example: I have 3300 Justice Points and 1600 Valor Points. Upon logging in after 4.2 releases I’ll see that my Valor has been down-converted to Justice; I now have 4000 Justice Points and 0 Valor Points. 900 of my Valor Points were over the 4000 point cap, they converted at a rate of 47 silver per point (.47x900), and so I received 423 gold as compensation.

The maximum you can have is 4000 Justice points, and Justice will be able to buy Tier 11 gear, so it’s important to go ahead and spend Valor before 4.2 if the conversion would take you over the 4000-point Justice cap and you have no need for the gold.

Clarification of Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest Proc Effect

Kaivax

Dragonwrath is designed to be DOT-friendly. Simply put, it has a chance to copy each tick of a DOT spell. There is no internal cooldown, since we want it to be good for warlocks and Shadow priests.

Furthermore, the proc chance is adjusted favorably for pet specs that derive a significant portion of their DPS from pets.

Our goal is to tune Dragonwrath in such a way that you can give it to any caster without anticipating certain classes or specs getting a bigger benefit than others.

Just a few new Blizzard posts today, including an interesting discussion in which a player relates the idea of completing new daily quests to " to throw my pc in a river." How do you guys feel about the upcoming daily quest hubs? Excited for the new storyline, rewards and content? Or are you burned out over the idea of Isle of Quel'Danas 2.0? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

In addition, we have some clarification on how Justice, Valor and Honor points will be handled when 4.2 hits, with promise of an upcoming blog post covering the conversions and such in more detail - looking forward to it! Also, don't forget, tomorrow is your last chance to purchase tickets for the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner, available at $500 USD and includes admission to BlizzCon!

Lylirra

is there anything to be really excited about in this patch?

I'd say the new daily quest areas are pretty darn exciting. Ditto for the upcoming Firelands raid. They both have that sexy fire theme and introduce quite a bit of new content for players to experience.

I mean, on the one end, you've the daily quests. There's over 60 of them spread between the Regrowth and the Molten Front, and the hubs are designed to offer as much questing variety as possible (a lot of the quests are randomized, which means you won't get the same ones every day). You also get to unlock new vendors with cool items to buy, watch the world change right before your eyes, and kick some hot Druid of the Flame boo-tay. A lot of the quests are loads of fun to play through, too, so I wouldn't write anything off as "a grind" just yet.

On the other, you've got the Firelands featuring seven brand new bosses with some epic mechanics and a whole new tier of gear. Currently available raids are also having their overall difficulty reduced, which we hope will open up the content to players who've not yet had the chance to experience it (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2580598159). And if you're a collector, there's a variety of new pets, mounts, and vanity items being introduced with the patch to hunt down and hoard.

So, while I wouldn't say "there's something for everyone," because that's a bit of a broad sweep, there's definitely a lot of different things to do -- and, for a large portion of players, that in and of itself is exciting.

I mean i really want to be excited but the thought of grinding 60+ daily quests just makes me want to throw my pc in a river.

Now, I get that the content I listed above may not appeal to your particular playstyle, and that's cool. Knowing what you don't like or aren't interested in is important -- not only to you as a gamer (so you can focus your time and energy on things that are fun), but also to us as a development company (so we can better understand our audience). That's only one side of the coin, though. In your post, you never really stated what kind of new content you would actually consider "exciting." Could you be more specific on that front? Maybe provide some examples of the things you'd be eager to play through?

Over 60 daily quests, plus the current daily quests that players may still be working on, and there is a limit of 25 per day?

Over 60 new quests were created for the Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas, but they won't all be available at once. Instead, a lot of quests will be randomized into smaller groups. So, while there might be 10 possible quests available from one cluster of NPCs, only 2 to 3 of those quests would be available on any given day.

Similarly, there's some linearity to the way certain quests are set up. Take the Druid of the Talon and the Shadow Warden dailies, for example:

Within the Regrowth and Molten Front daily quest areas, players will have numerous options, both in terms of the content they unlock and what quests they might play through on a daily basis. One of the first places players will get to experience this type of "modular" gameplay is near the entrance to the Molten Front, in the forward base known as Malfurion's Breach.

In addition to your normal duties at this outpost, you'll also be asked to secure the aid of two benevolent orders stationed in Mount Hyjal: the Druids of the Talon, led by Skylord Omnuron, and the Shadow Wardens, a fierce group of night elves under the guidance of Captain Saynna Stormrunner. This will be a pivotal point in your progression within the Molten Front and represents the first big unlock of new content for the area.

To secure the allegiance of the druids and wardens, you'll need to collect Marks of the World Tree to present to each order's leader. Once you've gained the appropriate amount of marks and turn them in, you'll unlock a unique set of daily quests tailored to either the Druids of the Talon or the Shadow Wardens. If you unlock the Druids of the Talon dailies, your journeys will take you into the shadow of the Furnace, an area wreathed in constant flame; the Molten Flow, a river of lava inhabited by flamewakers for as far as the eye can see; and Fireplume Peak, a floating island protected by hot-tempered fire hawks. If you opt to unlock the Shadow Warden dailies, you'll lay siege to the Forlorn Spire, wresting it from the enemy's grasp and establishing a new forward outpost. From there, you’ll be poised to attack the Widow’s Clutch, the breeding grounds for hordes of fire spiders, and Wildflame Point, a base of operations for the nefarious Druids of the Flame.

Once you've recruited both the Druids of the Talon and the Shadow Wardens, you'll have the option to choose which set of daily quests you complete each day. You'll only able to be complete one set of daily quests per reset (either the Druid of the Talon dailies or the Shadow Warden dailies), but the choice of which path you take is up to you.

You can unlock both sets of dailies -- the Druid of the Talon dailies and the Shadow Warden dailies -- with a little time and effort. After you have both sets unlocked, though, you can only complete one per day.

While both sets are positively epic (OMGFIRESPIDERS, FLAMEWAKERSPEWPEW), we like the idea of players getting to choose which group of allies they're going to assist each day. It feels strategic, and -- perhaps more on point with your concern -- will help keep your daily quest load to a much more manageable level.

(Just FYI, once everything is unlocked, you'll be able to pick up 17-18 quests in total from the new daily hubs.)

Justice, Valor and Honor Points in 4.2

Bashiok

I haven't seen any information towards the reset on justice and honor points in the next patch, only about the transfer of conquest points to honor points and valor to justice.

We have a blog post planned that goes into it a bit more we'll be posting this week.

So... you're going to get JP over the 4k cap?

No.

Bashiok

Talking about the Raid Set Gear you currently need Valor Points -OR- Tokens to exchange to acquire (unless you get them off the bosses in TB) from the Vendors in SW/ORG

Once all the current "Valor" stuff converts to Justice, will we still need the Raid Tokens off the bosses to get the set pieces currently requiring those set piece tokens? Or will they be reassigned with a Justice Point value instead?

In other words, can we buy a full set of T11 gear with ONLY Justice Points when 4.2 hits? Or do we still need some tokens?

Anything that costs Valor will cost Justice. Anything that costs Conquest will cost Honor. Nothing else changes. If the piece required an item token before, it will require one after. You'll have to down those bosses and win the tokens to purchase those pieces.

Additional BlizzCon Benefit Dinner Tickets On Sale June 8

Blizzard Entertainment

Just a reminder for those interested in attending this year's BlizzCon Benefit Dinner: An additional handful of tickets have become available and are going on sale Wednesday, June 8 at 7 p.m. Pacific Time. Tickets are priced at $500 USD each (price includes BlizzCon admission), and the proceeds will benefit Children's Hospital of Orange County. Quantities will be extremely limited, so keep your eye on the ticket sales page on Wednesday evening for a chance to get yours. For more information on the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner, visit the official BlizzCon website at www.blizzcon.com.

Blizzard has just updated the 4.2 Public Test Realm patch notes, with a handful of new class changes!

Notable changes include:

All character races now have a /roar sound.

8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.

Classes: General

Classes

Annihilation now increases Obliterate damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.

Glyphs

Charred Glyph has been redesigned. Rather than placing a 15% maximum health floor on Death Strike healing while in Frost or Unholy Presence, it causes the next Death Strike within 15 seconds after killing a foe that yields experience or Honor Points to heal for at least 20% of the death knight's maximum health (still requires Frost or Unholy Presence).

Thrash initial base damage has been increased to 1464 1042, up from 339. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 13.8% 9.82%, down from 19.2%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 816 581, up from 189. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 2.35% 1.67%, down from 3.26%. In addition, a bug was corrected where armor decreased the periodic damage done by this ability.

8 new rare tamable beasts have been added, each of which provides a unique taming challenge. Will you be the first hunter to tame Deth'tilac, the rarest and most powerful of them all? Players will need to progress through the Hyjal Regrowth and Molten Front daily questing areas in order to unlock access to the full gamut of taming challenges.

A new patch has just hit the Public Test Realms, bringing a handful of changes previously announced with the patch notes update a few days ago! Class changes are fairly boring, mostly tooltip changes for clarity, though there are a few spell changes here and there - nothing extremely surprising.

Latest Additions

Only a small handful of items, as well, including some new Firelands weapons (and their Heroic versions) and a new Leatherworking armor kit, . Most importantly, however, is the addition of a new companion pet: ! This lil' guy is taught by and is most likely this year's BlizzCon pet.

Patch 4.2 PTR Patch Notes have just been updated, documenting a number of fairly major class changes including a ton of bear Druid adjustments and some brand spankin' new Rogue changes! Some additions which were actually added with the 5/24 patch notes update have had their text clarified (so if some things look familiar, that's why).

Blizzard Entertainment

General

The Keyring bag slot has been removed to make room in the user interface for new features.

Keys which no longer serve a purpose in the game will be removed from player inventories. Compensation for the keys will be automatically provided in the form of each key's vendor sell price in gold.

Keys which are obsolete quest items will be removed from player inventories.

Keys which may still be of use to players will be transferred to regular inventory space. If a player's bags are full, these keys will sit in a backlogged inventory until sufficient space is made available. Once space is opened, the keys will appear in regular inventory upon the player logging out or switching zones.

Classes

Charred Glyph has been redesigned. Rather than placing a 15% maximum health floor on Death Strike healing while in Frost or Unholy Presence, it causes the next Death Strike within 15 seconds after killing a foe that yields experience or Honor Points to heal for at least 20% of the death knight's maximum health.

Bear damage abilities were scaling too fast with higher gear levels compared to other tanks, so the following balance changes have been made. All the numbers cited are for level 85 characters; numbers will be lower for lower-level characters.

base damage has been raised to 2950, up from 679. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 10.8%, down from 15%.

Maul base damage has been raised to 35, up from 8. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 19%, down from 26.4%.

Pulverize weapon damage percent has been decreased to 60%, down from 80%. Damage per Lacerate application has been increased to 1623, up from 361.

(Bear) weapon damage percent has been decreased to 190%, down from 260%. Bonus damage has been increased to 3306, down from 754.

base damage has been increased to 929, up from 215. Attack power scaling has been decreased to 12.3%, down from 17.1%.

Thrash initial base damage has been increased to 1464, up from 339. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 13.8%, down from 19.2%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 816, up from 189. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 2.35%, down from 3.26%.

Lacerate initial base damage has been increased to 3608, up from 2089. Initial damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 5.52%, down from 7.66%. Periodic base damage has been increased to 69, up from 16. Periodic damage attack power scaling has been decreased to 0.369%, down from 0.512%.

When spreads Living Bomb, it will only be spread to two additional targets. The net effect is that if the mage's most recent Living Bomb target is the same as their Impact target, that target will no longer lose the Living Bomb effect. If Living Bomb is active on multiple targets when the Impact effect is cast, Living Bomb will remain active on the most recent Living Bomb target, and will be added to two other nearby targets.

Frost

Deep Freeze and will cause diminishing returns on each other, in addition to the spells they normally share diminishing returns with.

Seal of Righteousness now can be activated by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can activate this seal. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now be critical effects.

Talent Specializations

Holy

now improves Word of Glory healing by 30%, in addition to its current effects.

Sacred Shield has been redesigned. This talent is now an activated ability off the global cooldown. It grants 20% increased block amount to a paladin's shield blocks for 10 seconds, with a 30-second cooldown.

Retribution

The talent now makes Seal of Righteousness hit an unlimited number of melee targets, instead of only 2 additional targets.

now also causes Fire Nova to add 3/6 seconds to the duration of Flame Shock auras on targets that Fire Nova damages.

PVP

Arenas

The The Ring of Valor has been added to the Arena rotation once again. Players no longer start the match on elevators at the center of the map. They now begin the match in starting rooms on opposite sides of the Arena.

Blizzard has just released a new PTR patch, as a follow-up to yesterday's major official patch notes update. Just a few class changes and clarifications today, mostly already documented in the previous patch notes update - including spell details for the nerfed raid boss abilities. We're still digging in the patch data, so if we find any more interesting additions we'll be updating this post!

As for new items, Blizzard has added yet another huge batch of epic quality loots (over 250 new/updated items!), and finally started adding the actual item sets for the Tier 12 items, so you guys will be able to easily find and check out set bonuses and all that good stuff!

Latest Additions

You guys may remember that the Celestial Dragon was added way back in Patch 3.3.3 (along with the Celestial Steed). We discovered a model for it way back then, and while I see that other sites are reporting a different model I do believe this is a later version of it, featuring some snazzy armor and sweet animations! Be sure to click the image to check it out in 3D!(Note: It seems the lil' dude is pretty high up there in our viewer, remember that you can simply hold down the right mouse button to adjust the model position!)

New Icons

Just a few new Blizzard posts today after earlier's major update to the patch notes, including a clarification on the decision behind the upcoming raid dungeon content nerfs. In addition, Blizzard reminds us of the upcoming (second) sale of BlizzCon tickets, available this Thursday. They've also launched a brand new support site, which allows users to submit tickets via a web interface instead of the clunky in-game method! Sounds awesome to me. :)

On 4.2 Raid Content Nerfs

I'm sure you guys noticed the massive list of raid nerfs coming in 4.2, intended to offer players easier access to content that they may not have gotten to experience. Blizzard has certainly learned from their past mistakes in making and then keeping content inaccessible and now wishes to keep content challenging while it's new and then as new content becomes available, gradually move previous content to a PUGable level. Is this a good thing? What do you guys think?

Bashiok

Plenty of people like the challenge, but not everyone has the ability or maybe even desire to be in a guild capable of tackling it right from the get-go.

It's always been our intent to offer new raid tiers in Cataclysm that are difficult to provide challenge to the raiding guilds, and then gradually allow older content to self-nerf as people gear up through VP, and then eventual literal nerfs to the content. That's something we've been communicating for some time.

Burning Crusade swung the pendulum one way, and Wrath of the Lich King swung it back too far the other. We're attempting to find that middle ground where there's still something brutally difficult for the cutting edge, but content gradually comes down until it's extremely accessible (ie PUGable) either simply through gear proliferation, or literal content difficulty nerfs.

There's always going to be two sides of the fence, some people want things more accessible for them and that's cool, we want it to be too, and some people think it should be difficult and always be that way because that's the way they had to do it. The fact of the matter is that as an MMO the end-game bar is constantly being raised, and progression content is in general not a place where we're going to purposefully gate prestige through difficulty. There are some exceptions of course, hard modes and unlockable bosses are purposefully there to be more difficult challenges, but as a whole our intent is to create a constantly moving ramp upward for Normal difficulty raids. That has to mean that the Normal raid content that was the hardest will one day be the easiest.

You will very likely see this same happen for Firelands when the raid tier above it is released.

Battleground Multi-Queuing Hotfixed

Bashiok

We recently implemented a hotfix that removes the ability for players to retain a second Battleground queue when one pops. Previously, players were able to queue for two Battlegrounds, have one queue pop and retain their second queue while they decided if they wanted to join the one that was ready. This is no longer the case. When a Battleground queue pops you will automatically be removed from the other active queue. To queue for a different Battleground it will be necessary to queue again.

Second Batch of BlizzCon Tickets on Sale Thursday (5/26)

Blizzard Entertainment

The second batch of BlizzCon tickets will be going on sale Thursday at 04:00 CEST - keep your eye on the ticket sales page at that time for the chance to get yours. If you are unable to purchase tickets, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit Children's Hospital of Orange County will go on sale Saturday, 28 May at 19:00 (BlizzCon admission included). For those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available through the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which is offered as a multi-channel Internet stream and also via DIRECTV in the United States.

BlizzCon 2011 will take place 21 and 22 October at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $175 USD each. Tickets to the BlizzCon Benefit Dinner cost $500 USD each and include BlizzCon admission. For further information, check out the official BlizzCon site.

Blizzard Launches New Support Site

Nethaera

As a part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best customer service possible to the community, we’re launching a new customer Service website which will offer a wide array of great new features to players who need assistance with a variety of issues.

Here are some highlights of what the new site can offer:

In the new Blizzard customer service website, you will be able to access all support contacts in one convenient location including Web, in-game, and phone support. You’ll also be able to quickly and easily check on the status of your customer service request.

During your ticket submission process, we’ll try our best to identify the problem you’re experiencing and provide potential solutions along the way with relevant smart help.

Once your ticket is submitted, you can communicate with our support team easily through the Web interface much like you would within the forums. You’ll be able to reply to your own ticket, add details after a ticket has been submitted, or even add and clarify additional details should you feel the initial response from support doesn’t solve the problem. To help keep you up to date on the status of your ticket we have also added an option to receive automatic emails whenever your ticket status changes.

We hope that this new site will provide you with the tools you need to contact our support teams quickly to resolve your service issues. We invite you to check out the new site here- http://us.battle.net/support/

Last night's patch included a few interesting new 3D models after all! Most notably the fiery version of Anzu makes an appearance--he was mentioned here a while ago as one of the coveted vanity rewards, but there's still no word on where he drops.

In addition to this bad boy, the patch also included an amazing humanoid model for the bronze dragon Nozdormu (he shows up at some part of the legendary staff quest chain and the Thrall questline) and an amazing set of fiery shoulders upon one of Majordomo Staghelm's Druids of the Flame. These guys appear in the Alysrazor encounter and throughout Firelands as trash mobs. Not only that, but we've got an updated model for the new , a scorching Overfiend, and a poor guy having a very rough day. Be sure to click the screenshots and check 'em out in our awesome 3D model viewer!